UFO ROUNDUP

Volume 4
Number 13
March 29, 1999

Editor: Joseph Trainor

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CROP CIRCLE APPEARS IN ISRAEL

On Saturday, March 20, 1999, a "significant crop
formation" was discovered in Betlekhem Hagalili, a village
in the Jezreel Valley about 65 kilometers (32 miles)
north of Jerusalem.

According to Israeli ufologist Barry Chamish, "The
formation was dumbbell-shaped with two circles of
nine meters diameter, joined by a straight line also
nine meters long and 90 centimeters wide. Eight
hundred meters away, an 11-meter diameter circle was
found. The formation was made in a large wheat field,
and the circles were spun counterclockwise."

"In classic crop formation fashion, the nodes of the
wheat were bent, but the stems were not broken. Over
70 photos of the crop formation were taken by (Israeli
ufologists) Gil Bar and Shaul Burgman."

Chamish reported that three crop circles have been
found in the Jezreel Valley during the past year.

The first was found in Bet Zarzir, a town "barely a
mile" from Betlekhem Hagalili, on April 12, 1998.

The second was found at Tel Adashim, located
12 kilometers (8 miles) from Bet Zarzir, on October 20,
1998.

"The circles were found in approximate six-month
cycles," Chamish stated, "The first circle was found on
Passover evening last year, and the latest was left a
week before the beginning of this year's Passover
festival." (Many thanks to Barry Chamish for this
report.)

(Editor's Comment: The Jezreel Valley has long been
a mystical hotspot in Israel. King Saul watched as the
Witch of Endor conjured up the ghost of Samuel there.
Bet Zarzir was also the birthplace of Ahinoam, one of
King David's wives, also known as the Cindy Crawford
of the Tenth Century B.C. It's in the Bible, notably
First Samuel 25:43; 27:3 and 30:5.)

UFOs SIGHTED IN RURAL NORTHERN PENNSYLVANIA

On Monday night, March 15, 1999, several glowing
UFOs were sighted in northern Pennsylvania, mostly
around Smethport (population 1,734) a small town on
Highway 59 about 123 miles (197 kilometers) southeast
of Erie.

"A woman driving home to Bradford (Pa.) from
Olean, N.Y. looked up to see a blue streak racing across
the sky."

"Confirmation has come from Doris Ladlee, who was
sitting at Gallico Crossing in Smethport, Mercedes
Schwartz, who lives at the top of Champlin Hill, and
Sandy Bennett of Smethport."

"Doris tells us she was sitting at the crossroads at
11:31 p.m. when, all of a sudden, 'the car lit up like
broad daylight, and I saw a great big ball of fire.' A
dazzling array of sparks followed as the object dropped.
She said she was looking eastward at the time, and
the object had a head and a tail like a comet. There was
no noise. It appeared to be heading (northeast) towards
Port Allegany (population 2,391) and Eldred (population
869)."

"'I thought that maybe a plane blew up,'" she added.

"Her son also saw it a couple of miles to the south.
To him, it looked like a blue streak across the sky--not
a fireball like she had seen."

"'It looked kind of like a big bright firework, only it was
too high up in the sky to have been that,' Doris reported.
'Everything runs through your mind. I though, God, I
wonder if someone shot off a missile! Or maybe two
stars hit together."

"Mercedes tells us she had just gone to bed and her
room was dark. ''I saw the large flash. I thought it might
be helicopters but there was no noise.'"

"Sandy Bennett said she was driving into Wilcox
(population 1,000) when she saw 'a big round ball. I think
it had a blue fire thing after it, and then there were sparkles.
It went up real fast, and it wasn't lighting.'"

Wilcox is on Highway 219 located about 29 miles
(46 kilometers) south of Smethport. (See the Bradford, Pa.
Era for March 23, 1999. Many thanks to Scott Corrales,
author of Chupacabras and Other Mysteries, for forwarding
this newspaper report.)

LARGE UFO HOVERS OVER PAIUTE INDIAN RESERVATION

On Thursday, March 4, 1999, at night, a motorist
traveling north on Highway 95 near Las Vegas, Nevada
spotted a strange array of lights hovering over the
Paiute Indian Reservation.

As the car reached a point a quarter-mile
(0.5 kilometers) south of the Ann Road overpass, the
driver "spotted eight very bright lights, 'like the lights of
a stadium,' stationary above the overpass directly
ahead. As the vehicle continued heading toward the
northwest, the driver realized that the lights were
much further away (than the overpass--J.T.)"

"They appeared to be hovering 200 to 250 feet
above a low rise in the valley near the Paiute Indian
Reservation, about five to seven miles north of the
Ann Road overpass."

"The lights were reported to be white in color,
without definition, and in a pattern of four above and
four below, and parallel to the ground. There were
no navigation lights or movement noted."

"The observer made a right-hand turn onto
Centennial Parkway, then a left-hand turn onto the
service road which runs alongside Highway 95.
The observer again noted the position of the
lights directly in front of him, but also noticed that
the top row of lights was beginning to become
obscure. Suddenly, the top row blinked out.
About ten seconds later, the bottom row disappeared,
'like the lights had been turned off.'"

"The observer also noticed that several other
motorists had pulled off the road, gotten out and
were also looking at the lights." (Many thanks to
Stig Agermose for this report.)

CYLINDRICAL UFO HOVERS NEAR A MALL IN GEORGIA

On Monday, March 22, 1999, at 7:05 p.m.,
salesman Robert H., age 40, and his wife and daughter
were driving "just outside the city limits" of Macon
(population 106,612), a large city on Interstate Highway
I-75 approximately 81 miles (129 kilometers) south
of Atlanta, when the daughter spied a strange gleam
in the sky.

"It appeared in the northwest sky above a shopping
center," Robert reported. "My daughter spoke of a light
in the west-northwestern sky. I first thought she was
looking at a vapor trail in the northern sky. She said that
she saw that, but what she was talking about was off
to the left. My wife saw it, too."

Looking in that direction, he added, "What I saw
appeared to be a cylinder in shape positioned up/down
like the letter I. It was in the west-northwestern sky
brightly lit with the setting sun behind and below it.
There did not appear to be any aircraft, stars or birds
in that area. We watched it for approximately five to
eight minutes and lost complete sight of it once we
exited the interstate (highway)." (Many thanks to
Ben Field of BUFOD for forwarding this report.)

TWO UFOs HURTLE OVER BATESVILLE, MISSISSIPPI

On Wednesday, March 3, 1999, at 8:45 p.m.,
a resident of Batesville, Miss. spotted two UFOs
"very bright objects about as large as an airplane,"
heading north.

"The witness first thought they were airplanes,"
reported MUFON Mississippi director J.R. Gillis,
"But as they got closer, he knew they were not planes.
No sound was heard. The unidentified objects stopped
and hovered for 15 seconds and then took off really
fast. Total duration of the sighting was one minute,
thirty seconds."

Batesville (population 6,403) is at the junction of
Mississippi Highways 6 and 51 approxmately 58 miles
(93 kilometers) south of Memphis, Tennessee.

The case is being investigated by Wayne Morgan,
MUFON assistant state director. (See Filer's Files #12
for 1999. Many thanks to J.R. Gillis and George A.
Filer, Eastern director of MUFON, for this report.)

GLOWING UFO SEEN ALONG NORTH CAROLINA SHORE

On Tuesday, March 23, 1999, at 7:30 p.m., Jared R.
spotted something strange hurtling across the night
sky in his hometown of Camden, North Carolina
(population 95), a small town on Highway 343
approximately 165 miles (264 kilometers) east of
Raleigh, the state capital.

"A bright object, traveling left to right across our
field of view, at a descending angle, appeared to be
glowing from friction like an object reentering Earth's
atmosphere," Jared reported. "Had a vapor trail and
a fire trail, much like a shooting star. Object moved
much slower than a shooting star and although it
seemed to be burning from friction with the atmosphere,
it never got smaller or burned out."

"The color was blue-white. The speed was
comparable to a jet aircraft that might have been
making a low pass. As it got lower and to our right,
the view was blocked by trees. It gave the appearance
that it would have been about five to ten miles from
our position, somewhere over Elizabeth City (N.C.)."
(Many thanks to Jim Hickman of Skywatch for
sending in this report.)

UFO SEEN HOVERING OVER DOWNTOWN TORONTO

The elusive "downtown Toronto" UFO is back,
and this time it was seen in the early morning hours,
hovering over Dundas Street in Canada's largest city.

Graham S.D. of Mississauga, Ontario, who spotted
a UFO three weeks earlier, reported that, on Tuesday,
March 23, 1999, at 3:30 a.m., "I had just finished
writing the weekly newsletter for my company. I went
out on the balcony (The upper-floor apartment overlooks
Toronto harbor--J.T.) to finish a smoke and to watch a
freight train go by. As I turned and looked back at the
city (Toronto) before I called it quits for the night, there
was the same light as before--orange-white, seeming
like it was spitting out bits of light. It was, I estimate,
15 degrees above the horizon, and for the life of me it
looked like it was following Dundas Street in a
westwardly direction."

"It then moved back along Dundas whilst climbing
to about 50 degrees from the horizon. It then (and
this sounds loopy--Graham) started to elongate. It
instantly reminded me of something from Star Trek."

"At this point, the light dulled and seemed to stop
spitting, still in its elongated shape. It was very bright
going but with no spitting, and literally went straight
up through the cloud layer, and gone."

Graham reports that this round of multiple UFO
sightings "continues to be an unsettling experience"
for himself and his family. (Email Interview)

MORE UFO SIGHTINGS REPORTED IN BRAZIL

On Saturday, March 6, 1999, at 12:15 a.m., a
brightly luminous UFO appeared over the large
seaport city of Recife, in Pernambuco state,
about 1,200 kilometers (720 miles) north of
Rio de Janeiro.

Witnesses described the object as "a large
object made up of an opaque blue light, so that it
resembled an object of light. It made a zigzag at
a tremendous speed, first to the right, then to the
left, and then took off, diminishing in brightness
as it approached the (western) horizon."

On Saturday night, March 20, 1999, another UFO
overflew Recife, this one described as "a white glowing
object." Other witnesses, however, reported seeing
"two parallel white lines or streaks" flying over the city.

In Londrina, the capital of Parana state, located
250 kilometers (150 miles) west of Sao Paulo, an
eyewitness claims to have seen black helicopters in
pursuit of a UFO at 10:30 p.m. on March 11, 1999,
the date of Brazil's recent big electrical blackout.

As Londrina went dark, Alexandre Novais "stayed
watching the sky from the window of his apartment.
He wanted to see the extent of the blackout."

He saw strange lights among Londrina's skyscrapers,
but his mother told him they were only helicopters.
Alexandre reported, "I told her that I would go to get my
binoculars, and, at this time, I saw an unusually large
light swiftly cross the sky at a stunning velocity. But
instead of falling to the ground, it ascended into the
sky."

The UFO, he stated, was "a strange light that crossed
the sky with a velocity as fast as a shooting star. It was
very rapid and very strange."

"Other lights were seen over the city's international
airport," he added, "They were over Brea, a suburb about
8 kilometers (5 miles) from the airport." (Muito obrigado
ao Euclides da Faria e Thiago Ticchetti por esos casos.)

UFOs SIGHTED IN ITALY AND NEARBY SARDINIA

Italy recorded three UFO sightings in various
regions of the country last week.

On Sunday, March 14, 1999, from 6:30 to
7 p.m., witnesses in Iglesias, a city on the west
coast of Sardinia, spotted "two luminescent
elongated forms that remained motionless in the
sky for nearly half and hour."

The two UFOs came together once, "forming an
inverted U and disappeared on the horizon seconds
later."

Iglesias is in Sardinia's Cagliari province about
140 kilometers (84 miles) south of Sassari, the capital.
(See the newspaper La Nuova Sardegna for March 16,
1999. Grazie a Antonio Cuccu di CISU per questo
rapporto.)

On Saturday, March 20, 1999, at 8:30 p.m.,
eyewitness Ozzano Emilia "was driving into Castel
San Pietro Termi when he saw a strange glow in the
woods. He then watched a large light rise into the sky."
He described the UFO as "a dark yellow color."

On Sunday, March 21, 1999, in the city of Milano
(Milan), "a strange light was seen in the sky by two
people over the suburb of Ripamonti. The light was
definitely much larger and brighter than a star,
giving off flashes of red, green and yellow light as
it rose into the sky. It stayed at one point for
several minutes, then (quickly) crossed the sky."
(Grazie a Massimo Marasi e Alfredo Lissoni di
Centro Ufologici Nazionale per questi rapporti.)

DOD SAYS LASER CUP JUST ARMY TRAINING MANEUVERS

On Thursday, March 18, 1999, around 3 a.m.,
three squadrons of black helicopters held night
training maneuvers in the mountains just west
of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Code-named Exercise Laser Cup, the simulated
combat flight ended with the landing of troops from
the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment
(SOAR) in Aliquippa, Pa. (population 13,374) and
Moon, Pa. (population 1,000), towns on the west
bank of the Ohio River about 25 miles (40 kilometers)
west of Pittsburgh.

"According to the Army, the choppers were
taking part in a joint Army and Air Force training
maneuver called Exercise Laser Cup. The name
doesn't mean anything--it's just a random monicker
chosen by computer."

"Twelve (UH-60) Blackhawk, PAVE LOW and
MH-6 helicopters flew from Youngstown, Ohio to
Lake Lynn, Fayette County (Pennsylvania) where
Special Forces were to practice finding hidden items
near an old mine. After that, they all flew back to
Youngstown. Yesterday (March 18) they returned to
their home base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and
other installations."

"Walt Sokalski, a civilian spokesman for the
Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, said the
helicopters flew between 500 and 1,000 feet and were
supposed to avoid the most heavily populated areas."

But the overflight really frightened the residents
of Beaver and Westmoreland counties, west of
Pittsburgh. Beaver County 911 received 40 telephone
calls from area residents, while Westmoreland County
911 received about a dozen calls.

"In the black of a peaceful winter night in the Beaver
County countryside, the first mean machines came
chop-chop-chopping low and loud over Don and
Phyllis Wilfong's house at 3:27 a.m....rattling the
windows and obliterating any hope of sleep."

"'It sounded like they were landing on the house,'
said Phyllis, 57, of New Sewickley, who bolted up in
bed with Don and the couple's suddenly very alert
Chihuahua. 'It shook everything. Our house was
shaking. Our bed was shaking. I don't know how
anyone couldn't hear that. I couldn't figure out what
the heck was going on.'"

As for Beth Nicholson and her husband, Shawn,
"at 3:30 a.m., a group of choppers churned over their
house on Steifel Avenue in Franklin (population 7,329)
Fifty minutes later, another group blasted by. And 25
minutes after that, another.."

"'The whole house was vibrating,' said Beth, 'My
husband didn't hear them at first, but I'm a lighter
sleeper than he is. I said, 'Oh, my goodness!' I went
over to my spare bedroom and stuck my head out...
That wasn't anything like LifeFlight (a helicopter
ambulance service in Pittsburgh--J.T.). Their helicopters
fly over here all the time. This was nothing like that.
I said to Shawn, 'It's like having a war outside.'"

"'We've been taking calls all morning,' said Capt.
Michael Mastroianni of Penn Township police in
Westmoreland County. 'We don't know who they were.
Needless to say, the military doesn't check in with us.'"

"Patrolman Corey Ceccarolli was sitting in his
parked cruiser in a Dairy Queen parking lot when the
choppers rumbled overhead at 2:50 a.m. Shortly
after, residents in Hempfield and Penn called 911."

Police also received a report of "a low-flying plane"
over Hempfield.

"'If you're not used to helicopters flying over your
house, it can sound like they're right on top of you.
We apologize for that,' Sokalski said, 'We hadn't
realized the overflight would cause such a reaction.'"

In the days following Exercise Laser Cup, more
reports of black helicopters came to the fore.

On Friday, March 26, 1999, Dean Y. reported,
"I live in Holly, Michigan (population 5,595). Black
helicopters are a common event around here. Today
I saw one in the Fenton area south of Bishop
International Airport. It came up from the south
along U.S. Route 23, then turned and headed south
again over Lake Fenton between 11:30 a.m. and noon."

Holly is 47 miles (75 kilometers) northwest of
Detroit. (Editor's Comment: If the Night Stalkers have
been back at Fort Bragg since March 19, who was
flying over Holly on March 26?)

On Saturday, March 27, 1999, Scott P. reported
that he had heard stories of two underground NATO
bases in Ohio. One, a subterranean five-acre complex
near Ravenna (population 12,069), a small city on
Route 59 about 16 miles (25 kilometers) east of
Akron. The other, an underground base with a
brand-new airstrip near Portersville (population 60)
about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Zanesville.

Also on Saturday, Newswatch magazine posted
six color photographs of white UN military vehicles
loaded on a flatbed truck in Port Beaumont, Texas.
The photos, however, are undated. The closeups
show a typical Humvee painted white with the
black letters UN behind the left front wheel well
and the words Military Police over and behind
the rear side window. (See the Pittsburgh, Pa.
Post-Gazette for March 19, 1999, "Not ready for
rumble--Sleepers alarmed by helicopter-borne
commandos," by Torsten Ove. See also the
Lisbon, Ohio Morning Journal for March 19, 1999
and the Trumbull County Vindicator for March 19,
1999. The Newswatch photos can be seen at
http://www.newswatchmagazine.org/unvehpict/home.htm.)

from the UFO Files...

1904: UNFORGETTABLE WHIPPLE V. PHILLIPS

Normally this is the kind of article you'd see in
Reader's Digest. But I doubt the Digest will ever
run an article on a notorious fellow like Whipple
Van Buren Phillips.

Ol' Whip Phillips died in Providence, Rhode Island
ninety-five years ago, on March 28, 1904. He's
probably best known as "a prominent Mason" and
as the father of artist Sarah Susan Phillips (1857-1921)
and the grandfather of cosmic horror writer Howard
Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937). But if anyone ever writes
the Magickal History of New England, Whipple Van
Buren Phillips will certainly get his very own chapter.

Whip was born in 1833 in Foster, R.I., a small town
about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Providence,.
and attended the East Greenwich Academy. In 1852,
at age 19, Whip traveled to Delavan, Illinois, a town
founded by one of his uncles, James Phillips (1794-1878).
But the upper Midwest wasn't for him, and in 1853, he
returned to Rhode Island, taking the scenic route. Among
the places he visited were the extensive mound complex
in Cahokia, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from
St. Louis, and Mammoth Cave in southern Kentucky.

It's no coincidence that H.P. Lovecraft's very first
story, which he wrote as a nine-year-old boy, was set
in Mammoth Cave. Grandpa Whip told him all about it.

In 1853, Whip bought a house in the aptly-named
Coffin's Corner section (now Greene village--J.T.) of
Coventry, R.I. On January 27, 1856, he married a
local girl, Robie Alzada Place (1827-1896) and took
a number of jobs, including teaching elementary
school and managing the local general store.

In 1876, he moved to Providence, purchased a
house at 276 Broadway and went into the real
estate business. He made and lost three fortunes,
and whenever he had the cash, he indulged his
esoteric tastes by collecting strange old manuscripts
and visiting prehistoric ruins.

L. Sprague de Camp wrote, "Whipple Phillips was
a hearty, energetic, enterprising, extroverted man who
had a long and checkered, but on the whole, successful
business career...Whipple Phillips also picked up a
fair degree of culture. He twice visited Italy and acquired
a taste for Italian art."

In addition to visiting several Etruscan and Saturnian
sites in Italy, Whip made a side trip to Egypt on his
way home. And thereby hangs the mystery.

In the 1920s, H.P. Lovecraft agreed to write a
story entitled "Under the Pyramids" for Farnsworth
Wright, the editor of Weird Tales, the story to be
printed under the byline of the famous escape artist
Harry Houdini.

It's not one of Lovecraft's better tales (my favorite
is Pickman's Model--J.T.), but it does contain some
startling references to a network of tunnels beneath
the Giza plateau. Most readers dismissed the
tunnel story as folklore, but then in November 1998,
Dr. Zahi Hawass discovered the vertical shafts
leading to the Tomb of Osiris.

The unanswered questions: did Whipple Van
Buren Phillips visit the tunnel complex under Giza?
Did he tell his grandson about it before his death
in 1904? And did Lovecraft incorporate some of
this inside information into the story?

On a snowy night in February 1904, about a
month before his death, the family heard a queer
hissing and thumping noise coming from the attic
of Whip's opulent home on Benefit Street in
Providence. Thirteen-year-old Howard asked,
"Hey! What's that?"

"Nothing! Pay it no mind, lad, hear?"

But Lovecraft was startled by the expression
on his grandfather's face--an expression of stark
terror.

Of course, he wasn't half as startled as the
Providence undertaker who worked on Whip's
body just after his death...a stroke, they
say...on March 28, 1904. The undertaker
reported, "I found the grotesque, twisted
expression on the decedent's face to be
quite disconcerting."

That's it for this week. We'll be back in
seven days with more saucer news from around
the planet, brought to you by "the paper that goes
home--UFO Roundup." See you then.

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